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Tuesday, September 2, 2008

South Africa

Well, this is my new country for today...number...hmmm..78 if i am counting correctly...

I received 3 cards from South Aftica, and here is one of them....it was a tough decision indeed which one to show first and after some negotioations with myself and changing my decision several times, eventually i went for the flag card....hehehehehe....yay, i flag card!!!!
I was actually asked if i maybe wont like it coz of the country name written on the card.....but no...i dont...its from THAT country.....if maybe something totally unrelated was written, then yes, it would have spoilt the feeling and i wouldnt have gone for it, but like this, its just perfect...and covers the whole card as well :)

The colours of the South African flag do not really have symbolic meanings in themselves. People do sometimes assign meanings to the colours (such as red for blood, yellow for mineral wealth etc.) but this is not the case with the current South African flag. According to Mr. Frederick Brownell, the former State Herald who played a large role in the original design, while the colours of the flag do not have any official symbolism, they do represent a synopsis of the country's flag history. The design in turn, represents a converging of paths, the merging of both the past and the present.

Black, gold and green, which were first incorporated into South African national flags in the 19th century, also feature prominently in the flags of the liberation movements, particularly the African National Congress, the Pan African Congress and Inkatha. These colours can thus be said to broadly represent the country's black population.
Blue, white, red and green reflect the British and Dutch (later Boer) influence, as shown in the earliest flags flown in South Africa, and also featured prominently in the old South African National Flag and thus represent the white population of South Africa.

The green pall (the Y-shape) is commonly interpreted to mean the unification of the various ethnic groups and the moving forward into a new united South Africa.

The South African flag is the only national flag to contain six colours as part of its primary design (excluding those flags which contain various colour shadesas part of the detail of coats of arms or other charges etc.).